Must Read !

[kentuck]

All of it...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/opinion/17rich.html

<snip>
WELL, of course, Karl Rove did it. He may not have violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, with its high threshold of criminality for outing a covert agent, but there's no doubt he trashed Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame. We know this not only because of Matt Cooper's e-mail, but also because of Mr. Rove's own history. Trashing is in his nature, and bad things happen, usually through under-the-radar whispers, to decent people (and their wives) who get in his way. In the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain's wife, Cindy, was rumored to be a drug addict (and Senator McCain was rumored to be mentally unstable). In the 1994 Texas governor's race, Ann Richards found herself rumored to be a lesbian. The implication that Mr. Wilson was a John Kerry-ish girlie man beholden to his wife for his meal ticket is of a thematic piece with previous mud splattered on Rove political adversaries. The difference is that this time Mr. Rove got caught.

Even so, we shouldn't get hung up on him - or on most of the other supposed leading figures in this scandal thus far. Not Matt Cooper or Judy Miller or the Wilsons or the bad guy everyone loves to hate, the former CNN star Robert Novak. This scandal is not about them in the end, any more than Watergate was about Dwight Chapin and Donald Segretti or Woodward and Bernstein. It is about the president of the United States. It is about a plot that was hatched at the top of the administration and in which everyone else, Mr. Rove included, are at most secondary players.

<snip>
This case is about Iraq, not Niger. The real victims are the American people, not the Wilsons. The real culprit - the big enchilada, to borrow a 1973 John Ehrlichman phrase from the Nixon tapes - is not Mr. Rove but the gang that sent American sons and daughters to war on trumped-up grounds and in so doing diverted finite resources, human and otherwise, from fighting the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. That's why the stakes are so high: this scandal is about the unmasking of an ill-conceived war, not the unmasking of a C.I.A. operative who posed for Vanity Fair.

<snip>
Next to White House courtiers of their rank, Mr. Wilson is at most a Rosencrantz or Guildenstern. The brief against the administration's drumbeat for war would be just as damning if he'd never gone to Africa. But by overreacting in panic to his single Op-Ed piece of two years ago, the White House has opened a Pandora's box it can't slam shut. Seasoned audiences of presidential scandal know that there's only one certainty ahead: the timing of a Karl Rove resignation. As always in this genre, the knight takes the fall at exactly that moment when it's essential to protect the king.

....more

[fryguy]

1. Rich is perfect and right on the money - as always

unhesitatingly and immediately nominated!

:kick:

[oldtime dfl_er]

2. "The real victims are the American people..."

and I might add especially those who have lost loved ones in Iraq.

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/702950

[lostnfound]

4. Including, and especially, Iraqis. nt

[ginnyinWI]

10. 112,900 Iraqis have been killed so far. n/t

[Imagevision]

25. The real victims are the 1770+ dead troops and 13,000 maimed!!

[welshTerrier2]

3. Deep Throat: you're missing the "overall"

i'm reposting this from another thread because it seems to fit in so well with Rich's article:

in the movie "All the President's Men", Deep Throat kept getting frustrated with Woodward because he kept focussing on the details ... Segretti did this and Chapin said that ... he repeatedly said to Woodward: "you're missing the "overall"" ...

that's kind of how i see all this talk about Rove getting fired or will they arrest Libby or should "Judy" get a "get out of jail free card" ... these are distractions from the treasonous abuses of our government by the WH ...

THE STORY is the fabrication of evidence ("fixing the evidence around the policy") leading up to the invasion of Iraq and the intimidation of those who refused to go along with it ...

The DSM, Plamegate, the Niger memo, the "oops, Saddam didn't have any WMD", the intimidation of the press and the CIA, Powell's little dog and pony show at the UN ... all of it boils down to one very simple truth: bush and the neo-cons lied to the American people to justify a war ... if you like cliches, "bush lied and soldiers died" ...

the argument is NOT about whether we should have invaded Iraq or we shouldn't have ... the argument is not about "getting Rove" or sticking it to Judy Miller, the White House's mouthpiece in the press ... our culture is really poisoned by "personality news" ...

THE STORY is the total breakdown of our systems of checks and balances ... our institutions did not protect us from the lies and propaganda the neo-cons put out to justify a war ... the damage to our country (and the people of Iraq) has been, and will continue to be, immeasurable ... and thus far, the great cover-up has held ...

John Dean has called the neo-con crimes "worse than watergate" ... let's hope the punishments handed down are more severe ...

[Gregorian]

6. I'd like a link to that thread.

I'd also like to say that not only did soldiers die, but Bush lied, and a hell of a lot of citizens died.

Thanks. These posts are great. It's so healing, or at least satisfying, to hear the truths I've spoken in my own head, coming back to me from others. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now on with the trial.

[welshTerrier2]

8. here ya go ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1933753

[gumby]

14. "Watergate" was an "Inside" maneuver.

Whatever is happening now is equally an "Inside" maneuver. We can only watch from the sidelines and hope it comes out better than Bush.

Thank goodness for Al Gore's Internets. Without them, we'd still be dependant on the Military Intelligence of Woodward.

[ShockediSay]

5. call him (Rove) "turd blossom"

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=343755

And like Segretti, this college dropout's past crooked dealings are catching up with him. His fun is just beginning.

I always heard a Grand Jury (like that impaneled by Fitzgerald) could indict a ham sandwich. What about a Turd Blossom? Guess that depends on how ethical Fitzgerald is.

[welshTerrier2]

7. Fitzgerald seems like the real deal ...

welcome to DU, ShockediSay !!

[calimary]

26. Welcome to DU!

Glad you're here. And wasn't rove a Segretti student, back in the day?

[ginnyinWI]

9. thanks!

This one is a keeper--I'm printing Rich's article and saving it.

Suggestion: put his name in the title of your post if you can--lots more will read it.

[caligirl]

11. Check out this thread, really pulls it together for Cheney, Hannah, AIPAC

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4116940&mesg_id=4116940

[eleny]

15. Well, now - this is a keeper!

I didn't see that thread today. Going back to digest the column. It certainly sounds plausible. Oh man!

[eleny]

12. Well sure!

As I said in response tonight to another fine DUer - unlike Watergate, this time we're working backwards from the White House. It's a matter of connecting the dots or players involved. Rove being the one to concoct the conspiracy and who all carried it out. This one we start in the WH. And we have Nixon to thank for that lesson.

[ginnyinWI]

13. what surprises me

is the large number of repubs who are willing to get on tv and recite talking points which are false. Senators, even. They will go down with the rest, unless they can convince everyone that they were lied to as well.

[fryguy]

20. Rove got most of them elected

and they know he can bring them down if they don't "support" him - even from jail.....

[BamaBecky]

16. Why does Mr. Novak still have his job????????

One would think his employers would be very embarrassed....don't you think?

:shrug:

[Why Syzygy]

17. Thank GAWED

SOMEONE finally caught on to the big picture.

[calimary]

27. Truly! Frank Rich has been pretty damned lucid all the way along, but

this is truly remarkable.

Many of us have complained to each other about how people aren't seeing the big picture on the Plame Affair. But this ties everything up. Glad this stuff is getting out there. If he's writing it, other people are thinking it.

Visualize IMPEACHMENT!
Pass it on...

[ProudDad]

18. Great Article

Thanks...

[NMMNG]

19. Whoot, there it is!

Excellent article, nominated.

[Zensea]

21. I notice he mentions page 12 of the New York Post

I live in New York and had noticed that also. I saw a copy of the Post that day and there was nothing on the front page so I decided to see if they mentioned it at all and like Rich says nothing until page 12. And when he says five paragraphs it shoud be noted that they were very small paragraphs. The entire article was only about 2 inches long in a single column.
I laughed at the time because I could smell the desperation.

[DemsUnited]

22. YES!!!! Excellent piece

More and more journalists are standing back from the tree of Rove and looking at the forest.

And it's some big, honking burning sight.

[wryter2000]

23. That's amazing

Definitely a must read. :woohoo:

[rexcat]

24. There are some great talking points in the article...

Well said and worth a kick.